EN-OFFICERS (EDUCATION GRANTS

asked the President of the Board of Education whether his attention has been called to the great hardship inflicted upon the students in Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne, under the scheme of the Board of Education for the training of ex-officers by the withholding of payments due last October for the term October-January; whither he is aware that many students who were attending the long vacation have not yet been paid the maintenance grant, now over seventeen weeks in arrears and whether he will take immediate steps to have these grievances remedied?

I regret that, owing to very great pressure of work in this branch of my office and the unexpectedly large number of applications received this autumn for assistance under the ex-Service students' scheme, there has been
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some unavoidable delay in dealing with some of the applications and settling the payments. Payments have already been made in about three-quarters of the cases, and I have now arranged for special payments on account to be made in the case of the other remaining ex-Service students at Armstrong College, to whom grants have been promised but riot yet paid, and who are in need of immediate financial assistance.